The $15 to $16 an hour minimum wage that the low-wage workers are asking for has a lot of positive to it, such as helping to end corporation welfare and these large corporations like Walmart paying below living wages and then the tax payers having to supplement their workers by way of food stamps and Medicaid, school lunches. Usually the cost for a low-wage worker is about $10,000 a year so if the corporations paid a living wage like they should, that corporation welfare money could go toward other things, which would benefit all of the 99 percent, and, of course, better wages would mean more jobs and maybe some families could go back to a one-wage earner per family, which would be good for the children, in some cases.
In order to get the win on wages each wage slaves must want it and be willing to make the commitment just like going on a diet, quit smoking, getting sober. Each person must do it and then find others with the same will and tenacity to stay with it until you win. But just like the Art of War tells you, you must do your Intel. Pick the time and try to get the high ground and educate yourself on the issues and tactics, and have a good strategy with all the support that you can muster, such as public opinion on your side.
Remember the Walmarts can do a very slow retreat on wages and benefits for they are at the bottom so they will give an inch at a time to try to swing public support and win workers to their side. Don’t fall for it. Elezar D. Melendz writes that the 1949 near doubling of the minimum wage did not create any negative effects the corporations said it would, such as raise the unemployment rate or curtail business activity.
Anything less than $15 to $16 an hour is not a living wage and you would still be just as bad off and it will not costs jobs for everyone will be paying and unemployment will drop to 5 or 4.5 percent and if you need to check these things out just look at austerity and New Zealand’s fast food workers making $15 to $16 an hour and the hamburgers are not much different than our prices.
Some of us think that low wages give us savings when they buy things, but then we end up paying a lot more in taxes to support that business’ workers and the corporations get richer and richer by you helping to pay for what they should be paying for. The big corporations’ propaganda machine is starting to spew their same old crap about it costing jobs, making things cost more and not fair to tell money people what to pay. It is just same old bullshit, they’ve used since the beginning of time.
The winning strategy is that you can pick the time and place or places and how long you: 5 minutes or 5 hours, whatever you want. And again, workers should trade off. For example, Walmart workers picket the fast food places and then the fast-food workers picket Walmart. This will not jeopardize the Walmart workers. This way you get the message out as work on public support by showing support for each other. When you have 70 percent public support then do your walk outs on Thanksgiving or Christmas. You picket and if you see public support slipping then go back to the trade-off demonstrations, but don’t give up the quest for $15 to $16 an hour would that make a nice Christmas or start 2014 presents?
By the way, the corporations have no problem using our commons (roads, sewer systems and bridges, etc.), which we all pay for, and the corporations could not have or make money without the commons more corporate welfare.
Ask yourself, why do chief executive officers deserve to earn anywhere from $250,000 to $20 million in bonuses alone, but the average working stiff shouldn’t earn $15 to $16 an hour? According to Fortune 500 magazine, CEOs earn an average of $12 million a year, which is 380 times the pay of the average worker. This disparity should anger even the most passive, uninformed or indifferent worker.
Unions’ long game is to get all union contracts to expire on the same day nationwide. The United Auto Workers combines contracts ends on April 28, 2028. This could then result in a mass national strike starting on May Day beeginning that year. This could then put enormous pressure on employers, but also on lawmakers. It’s the muscle and sweat of the workers that keeps this country great, not the individual company or corporations. This May Day strike would be the time to change the workers’ world for the better by negotiating for a 32-hour week with the same pay, and the U.S. adopts a healthcare for all with no out of pocket costs. This would also help the employers as they would no longer have to provide healthcare. By striking, the UAW won same pay for new workers, all UAW contracts will end on the same date, a 25-percent pay increase, a cost of living adjustments, a guaranteed right to strike over potential plant closures, and also the right to vote to unionize through the card che
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